Sometimes I make a salad that stuns me, it is gorgeous to present, and one I love to eat. This is one of those salads.
The salad starts with gorgeous heirloom carrots from The Culinarium, ooty. They were baby carrots, beautiful purples and white, the contrast in colour was amazing. These baby carrots were delicate and delicious.
The salad is really super simple. Honey-roasted carrots on a bed of smooth yoghurt, topped with zata'ar and pomegranate seeds. I did not want to waste the carrot tops so i made a quick pesto and added it to the salad. The flavours were beautiful, the sweet carrots were tempered with the yoghurt, the zata'ar and carrot top pesto adds the herby flavour and the pomegranate seeds a fresh pop. This salad disappeared on the table so fast I was glad to get a taste of it. This recipe is definitely staying on my menu rotations.
The Huxtabook was a way for diners to take home the excellence of the now-closed Huxtable, the small but casual restaurant in Victoria. This is one of those books that i am so glad i have on my shelf. Each recipe is excellent, they are small plates of exquisite ingredients in unusual combinations, like this dish. I have cooked from it every so lightly, mainly because I cannot find most of the speciality ingredients, but those recipes that I have made have been superb. This is a cookbook for those who want the unusual.
For more recipes from this amazing book, click here.
Ingredients:
For the salad:
12 baby carrots, or 4-5 large carrots
3 tablespoons light honey
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup yoghurt, whipped well with salt till very smooth
Salt, to taste
Pomegranate seeds, to garnish
Za'ataar, to garnish
For the carrot top pesto:
1 cup carrot leaves with stems removed
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoon pine nuts, lihjtly toasted
Salt, to taste
34 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Cut the leaves off the carrots leaving 1-inch of the stems attached to the top. If the baby carrots are very thin leave as is or cut in half. Depending on the thickness of the large carrots cut them in half or quarters,
Mix the honey, olive oil, salt and pepper well. Drizzle over the carrots and mix well to coat the carrots with the marinade.
Heat the oven to 300° F.
Layer the carrots on a limed baking sheet and roast for 25030 minutes, the timing will depend on how big the carrots are. Remove and set aside tocool.
Make the carrot top pesto by adding all the ingredients to a small blender and purèeing till very smooth. taste for salt and pepper.
To serve, spread a layer of the yoghurt on the bottom. Drizzle some of the pesto over the yoghurt in a pattern. Gently add the roasted carrots to the yoghurt and garnish with the pomegranate seeds and the za'atar powder. serve immediately.